Regionals
by TJ6
Summary: This was it. The moment they'd been working for. Just a quick little one-shot of a few extended/missing scenes. With a Puckleberry twist of course.


_I know I said I wasn't going to post anything until I was back from vacation, but I couldn't help myself. I needed glee to have a Puckleberry ending. Review! If you love it, hate it... I want to know. Oh, and I don't own Glee. Dammit..._

**REGIONALS**

Rachel took a deep breath. This was it. This was what they'd worked for months for. Cried, laughed, bled, sweat, danced, and sang for. She looked over at Finn and smiled nervously. "Break a leg."

She swallowed any other words when he began walking towards her. _Oh God_, her mind was spinning. _Why _had she kissed him? She'd been depressed… She just wanted to _feel_ something… She always felt something when she and Noah had kissed, why was that? And why had it been _different_ with Finn? Less somehow…

"I love you."

_Shit._

* * *

"Quinn's water just broke!"

Puck dropped the celebratory glass of sparkling cider he'd had halfway to his lips- sure cider was lame, but they'd _kicked ass_ out there today and he was celebrating dammit! "What?" He looked wide eyed at Mercedes, who'd made the excited/anxious announcement. "But she's not due for, like, another month."

"Tell the kid that," Mercedes said gathering her and Quinn's things "'cause she's coming _now_."

Puck sat down heavily, not noticing the frantic actions going on around him.

"I think someone should stay here." Rachel announced. She frowned when she glanced at Puck out of the corner of her eye; the blank look in his eyes concerned her. "Hear me out." Rachel held up her hands when everyone started yelling at her. "We all want to be there," She glanced at Quinn, who was ushered in by her mother "I want to be there. But most of us are just going to be sitting around in the waiting room. We need to watch the competition. Maybe it is selfish, but I have to know that we beat them. That we beat Jesse…"

"Rachel's right." Quinn said quietly. Everybody stopped suddenly to look at the panting blonde- minus Puck, who was still staring straight ahead and Rachel who was watching the silent jock curiously. Quinn gripped her mother's hand tightly as another contraction came over her. "And now that we've decided that can we _please_ get to the freaking hospital?"

As Mrs. Fabray led Quinn out of the dressing room, murmuring encouraging platitudes to her daughter, the chaos resumed. Rachel walked over to Puck, who was still sitting silently, as everyone hurried out the door. "Noah." She said quietly. No response. "Noah." She tried again, this time she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Puck blinked and looked up at Rachel. Why was she standing so close to him? (Like right between his legs, almost pressing against his junk…) And where was everyone else? "Berry?"

"Noah," concern was all over her face "are you alright?"

He looked her in the eye and placed a hand on her waist, much like he'd done when she'd cleaned that slushie off of him all those months ago. "What do I do?"

Rachel smiled slightly at him- she couldn't for the life of her figure out why it felt like her heart was tearing in half. "Go." She said lifting her hand from his shoulder to caress his cheek softly. "Quinn's having the baby. Your daughter. Beth's coming."

A slow smile spread across the jock's face. "Beth." Then he was standing and Rachel was off the ground, spinning around in his arms, and they were both laughing. And then they were kissing.

His lips were soft on hers; gentle, sweet, deliberate… They were nothing like the intense, drugging kisses they'd shared during their brief week together, but the feeling was the same. The slow, liquid pull low in her belly, the fluttering in her heart that suddenly felt three times too large for her chest… Everything she _hadn't_ felt with Finn.

"Noah…" She pulled away reluctantly "You have to go."

"We have to go." He said, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear as he set her down.

Rachel shook her head "I'm staying here. I have to see Jesse get crushed."

He frowned. "But you have to meet Beth."

She touched his hand gently- it was barely there, a whisper of a touch- but it said so much. "I will. I promise. I just need to see this first."

Puck nodded and pulled her into a brief hug. And then Rachel was alone.

* * *

"You suck! You suck! You suck!" Quinn's chant echoed in the delivery room.

Puck didn't hear it. All he could hear was the fluttery sound of his baby's heartbeat as it came through the speakers of the monitoring equipment. His face paled as he watched the bloody mass, which was the crown of his daughter's head, come into sight. It was disturbing, kind of like something from a horror movie, but it was also the most beautiful, miraculous things he'd ever seen.

Quinn screamed.

Quinn's mom held her hand tightly, and murmured comforting nonsense.

Mercedes yelled encouragements.

Nurses and doctors exchanged medical jargon.

Puck held his breath.

Beth screamed.

Puck let out the breath he'd been holding and everyone but the doctors and nurses shut up and listened to the baby cry. His baby. She was here. She was real and _she was here_. His eyes left his daughter for a split second to make contact with Quinn's. Identical smiles spread across their faces. He reached up and quickly wiped away the single tear that had escaped his eye.

"Congratulations." A nurse said as she handed the pink swaddled bundle of joy to Quinn. "Does she have a name?"

"No." Quinn answered quickly. She'd decided it would hurt less to give the baby away if she didn't have a name.

Puck stayed quiet until his baby was in his arms. "Hi baby." He said quietly, so quietly that no one else could hear. "Hi Beth. I'm your daddy." He swore that she smiled when he said her name- gas his ass.

* * *

Rachel stared at the stage, but she wasn't really seeing anything- just blurs of red and black… She could vaguely hear the Queen song in the background, see people waving their lit up cell phones back and forth, but her mind was completely on the boy- man- who had kissed her barely an hour ago.

Noah. Puck. Noah 'Puck' Puckerman. Why did she feel so much for the brutish, young jock? Sure he was attractive- ridiculously attractive- and he was passionate and talented and honest- brutally honest- what was she thinking about again? Right, Noah, why couldn't she feel for Finn- the sweet, admittedly dense boy, the one who claimed to love her- what she felt for Noah?

She closed her eyes and sighed, turning from the stage she headed out of the auditorium, she couldn't watch this anymore. Pushing through the doors she was surprised to feel wetness on her cheeks. Wiping the offending tears away she pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed a familiar number. "Can you come and get me? I need to be there."

* * *

"I'm glad you called me." Finn said, glancing over at Rachel.

Rachel shifted uncomfortably in her seat when he smiled at her. "Yes, well, I wanted to talk to you away from the others."

"About-"

"About what you said before our performance today," Rachel continued "and about how I kissed you the other day."

"Rach, I-"

"It was a mistake." Rachel blurted out before he could finish. "I don't know why I did it. I was confused and depressed- about Jesse and my mom and glee club was ending… I'm sorry. It's not an excuse, but you were saying those things and you were there and…" Rachel trailed off and her eyes met Finn's in the rearview mirror "I'm sorry Finn, but I don't love you."

The reflection of Finn's eyes stared into hers for a few tense seconds before he let out a shaky breath. "Oh, thank God."

* * *

Puck and Quinn stood at the window of the nursery staring at their baby girl. "Do you love me?" Quinn asked suddenly.

It took all Puck had in him to tear his gaze from his baby girl, his Beth, - who he knew would be gone from his life far too soon- and look at Quinn. "I- I think I thought that I did." Quinn just stared wordlessly at him. "I love what we've done, what we've made, but…"

"But you don't love me." Quinn finished.

"Not the way I should." Puck admitted.

"Can we be friends?"

Puck stared down at the once infamous ice queen of McKinley High. She wasn't the same person- truth be told, neither was he- she seemed timid and scared and just a little bit lost. A little bit broken. Just like him. Wrapping an arm about her shoulders and pulling her against his side he turned back to the window, to watch his miracle just a little bit longer. "We're already friends Quinn."

She sighed and he didn't have to see her to know she was smiling. After a few comfortably silent moments Quinn spoke again. "Puck?"

"Yeah?"

"As your friend, I think I should tell you that you're in love with Rachel Berry."

* * *

As Puck sat with Mr. Schue, playing his guitar and harmonizing with the older man, he couldn't help but think about Beth and Quinn and what Quinn had said.

His baby girl was gone, whisked away by her adoptive mother- Rachel's biological mother, go figure. The little person that was half him, his family, was gone. But, he thought- as he watched Quinn join hands with Mercedes and Kurt grab both of them and smile, as Santana and Brittany linked their pinkies and looked happier than he'd ever seen them, as Mike and Matt bumped fists and Tina and Artie held hands and Rachel and Finn smiled at one another- maybe, one day, it wouldn't hurt so much. He had _this_, this strange little dysfunctional glee family.

And- when Rachel smiled at him with that special sparkle in her eye, the one that was only there when she smiled at him- he thought, maybe if Rachel was at his side, that the hole in his heart would heal that much faster.

When Mr. Schue announced that they had one more year Puck rushed back to the group, to join in the celebrating. Somehow Rachel found herself in his arms, laughing giddily as he spun her around, much like he had on Beth's birthday.

Then they were kissing again and that feeling was back.

"Told you." Quinn grinned at Puck when the kissing couple pulled away from each other, gasping for air.

Puck gave his baby mama the finger, but softened it with a grin. "Shut up, Fabray."

"You owe me ten bucks." Santana told Kurt. The tall boy grumbled but handed the Cheerio ten dollars.

"You bet on us?" Puck asked, his arm still draped over Rachel's shoulders. Santana just shrugged.

Rachel laughed and looked around the circle at her eleven teammates and their mentor. "This is it guys." She said.

"This is what, Rachel?" Mr. Schue asked.

"This is the moment we've been working so hard for." Everyone exchanged glances. "It wasn't Sectionals or Regionals or kicking Vocal Adrenalin's ass… It was this."

Puck cleared his throat when the thirteen way hug commenced. "Now that we've done the all the drama and the big chick flick moment thing, can we start thinking about kicking Vocal Adrenalin's ass next year?"

"_That's_ gonna be a good moment." Finn smirked.


End file.
